Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
To cite this article: T. Afrin , T. Tsuzuki , R.K. Kanwar & X. Wang (2012) The origin of the antibacterial property of bamboo,
The Journal of The Textile Institute, 103:8, 844-849, DOI: 10.1080/00405000.2011.614742
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the Content) contained
in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the
Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and
are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and
should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for
any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever
or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of
the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic
reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
The Journal of The Textile Institute
Vol. 103, No. 8, August 2012, 844849
Bamboo is an eco-friendly and multifunctional plant. Bamboo clothing has recently entered the textile market with
a claim for its antimicrobial properties, but without scientic evidence. In this study, the antibacterial activity of
plant extracts from Australian-grown bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) is investigated. Bamboo extracts were
made using water, dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and dioxane and their antibacterial properties were compared
against Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli. It was found that the extract made in 20% DMSO aqueous solu-
Downloaded by [Deakin University Library] at 23:44 04 May 2014
tion showed weak antibacterial activity, whereas the extract made using 90% dioxane aqueous solution exhibited
strong antibacterial activity, even after 20 times dilution. The results indicate that antibacterial agents of P. pubes-
cens are located in lignin, not in hemicellulose or other water-soluble chemical components.
Keywords: bamboo; antibacterial property; lignin; E. coli
forming units ml 1 in 5 ml of nutrient broth (modied The E. coli growth in nutrient broth was monitored
Trypton soya broth from Oxoids). Trypton soya agar by the optical density measurements using an Asys
(from Oxoids) was used as the nutrient agar for the micro plate reader spectrophotometer at 550 nm (Expert
agar plates. The Atherton cyber series autoclave was plus UV; Type: G020151, ASYS Hitech GmbH, Eugen-
used for sterilisation and media preparation at 121C dorf, Austria). Hundred microlitres of E. coli inoculum
for 20 min. was added into 5 ml of bamboo extracts (water, DMSO
extractions and MWL in water) and incubated for 18 h
at 37oC in a shaker oven. Twenty percent DMSO was
Materials and methods used as control for bamboo extracts in DMSO and ster-
Bamboo (P. pubescens) plant samples were purchased ile water was used as control for water extracts and
from Earthcare Farm at Crystal Waters Permaculture MWL, respectively. After 18 h of incubation, 100 ll of
Village in Queensland, Australia. They were matured the E. coli and or extract mixtures were plated (three of
culms and already dried. The bamboo was crushed each) and incubated for further 18 h at 37oC. After
into ne powder to give the possibly highest surface incubation, the plates were observed on the light box
area while extracting with solvents. First, the raw and pictures were taken. A Ricoh 12 mega pixel camera
bamboo specimen was crushed into a powder form in was used for the photography of the agar plates with
a vertical turret mill (Hafco, Super Power BM-52VF;
Downloaded by [Deakin University Library] at 23:44 04 May 2014
bacterial growth.
Hare and Forbes Machinery house, Melbourne, Aus-
tralia) and then shaker milling was further performed
Physiochemical characterisation of bamboo powder
in a 8000M mixer/mill (Spex, Metuchen, NJ, USA) in
a steel container with the steel balls of 0.91 cm in The morphologies of milled bamboo powder and
diameter with the weight ratio of sample:ball = 1:60. lignin extracts were studied by scanning electron
Time-dependent water extraction was done with microscopy (SEM) using a Supra 55 VP. A Fourier
raw bamboo powder. Ten grams of bamboo is added transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) was carried
to 300 ml of deionised sterile water. The extraction is out to identify the chemical bonds with a Bruker Ver-
carried out for 1, 3, 6, 12, 24 and 72 h. After extrac- tex 70 spectrometer (Etllingen, Germany) and associ-
tion the solution was centrifuged (Eppendorf centri- ated software OPUS 5.5. A Malvern Mastersizer 2000
fuge, 5430R) and the supernatants were collected. particle size analyser (Worcestershire, UK) was used
Ajax supplied the DMSO. It has been reported that to measure the particle size of the milled bamboo
the DMSO itself has an antibacterial activity (Ansel, powder by static laser light scattering, with water as a
Norred, & Roth, 1969). Therefore, the dependence of dispersant. The amounts of cellulose, hemicellulose
DMSO concentration in water on the antibacterial activ- and lignin are measured according to Chinese standard
ity was studied within the concentration range from 0 to method GB5889-8.
100%. It was found that 20% is the best concentration
to use for extraction, because the numbers of the
Results and discussion
colonies were in between 30 and 300, suitable for
colony-counting. To make bamboo extracts, 10 g of Physical appearance of bamboo powders and MWL
milled bamboo powder was immersed into 300 ml of The particle size of the bamboo powder after vertical
100% DMSO and was kept at room temperature for turret milling was around 500 lm in diameter.
72 h with continuous stirring, followed by ltering to Further milling in a shaker mill reduced the particle
collect the supernatants, in which deionised sterile water size down to 520 lm as shown in Figure 1(a). The
were added to make 20% DMSO aqueous solution.
Reagent grade dioxane was purchased from
Sigma-Aldrich (Sydney, Australia). The extraction was
carried out at room temperature by keeping 10 g bam-
boo in 300 ml aqueous dioxane solution (water:diox-
ane = 1:9 v/v) for 72 h with continuous stirring. The
powderliquid mixtures were then ltered and the
supernatant was collected. The dioxane was evapo-
rated to make bamboo extracts in water so that there
is no effect of the dioxane on the antibacterial activity.
This was considered as 100% solution of milled wood
lignin (MWL) and was further diluted with sterile
deionised water to obtain 50, 25, 10 and 5% Figure 1. SEM images of (a) milled bamboo powder and
solutions. (b) extracted bamboo lignin by using 90% aqueous dioxane.
846 T. Afrin et al.
particle sizing by laser-light scattering indicated that bands are aromatic skeletal vibrations (Buta, Zadrazil,
the average volume particle size was 30 lm. The & Galletti, 1989; Sakakibara & Sano, 2001; Yueping
larger particle size observed by laser light scattering et al., 2010). The spectrum also shows the typical
may be caused by the fact that the particles swelled cellulose nger print where 1050 cm 1 band is
during the measurements in water, while the SEM assigned to complex vibrations associated with the
image was taken for dried particles. CO, CC stretching and COH bending in polysac-
After extraction in 90% dioxane aqueous solution, charides (Rodrguez-Lucena, Lucena, & Hernndez-
the dioxane was evaporated and the bamboo extracts Apaolaza, 2009; Yueping et al., 2010). The 1375 cm 1
were collected in water that is termed as MWL. The band corresponds to the CH deformation in
SEM image of MWL is shown in Figure 1(b). These cellulose and hemicellulose. CH deformation in cel-
particles were found to be quite similar to the particles lulose is evident in 898 cm 1 band (Pandey & Pitman,
isolated by Liese (1998). This observation gives the 2003).
indication of successful extraction of the gummy
material, i.e. lignin.
Antimicrobial activity
Bamboo (time dependent) extracts in water
Chemical constituents
The antibacterial activity of bamboo extracts in water
Downloaded by [Deakin University Library] at 23:44 04 May 2014
Figure 4. Photographical image of bacterial plaques that were plated with the bamboo extracts in water: (a) control, (b) 1 h,
(c) 3 h, (d) 6 h, (e) 12 h, (f) 18 h, (g) 24 h, and (h) 72 h of incubation.
Figure 6. Photographical image of bacterial plaques that were plated with (a) sterilised deionised water and (b) 100%, (c)
50%, (d) 25%, (e) 10%, and (f) 5% MWL in sterile water.
(P. pubescens) lignin contains strong antibacterial and described their neuroprotective activity (Akao
compounds. et al., 2004; Ito et al., 2007). Zemek, Kosikova, Augu-
stin, and Joniak (1979) also depicted antibiotic effects
of synthetic compounds having guaiacyl and syringyl
The location of antibacterial agents in P. pubescens structures that are related to the structure of native lig-
From the above antibacterial test results, it is evident nin. As such, the existence of the aromatic and pheno-
that the antibacterial agents of P. pubescens are lic functional groups in lignin may be responsible for
located in lignin, not in hemicelluloses. The water- the antibacterial property of P. pubescens.
insoluble nature of antibacterial compounds also sug- In order to produce antibacterial bamboo fabrics,
gests that the antibacterial agents reside in lignin lignin components need to be retained into the bres
which is almost insoluble in water (Walker, 2006). while processing raw bamboo into bre. However, cur-
The chemical constituent analysis proved the pres- rent methods to process bamboo plants into bres are
ence of a high amount of lignin (28%) in the bamboo based on the regeneration principle where bamboo
powder used in this study. In general, lignin is an aro- plants are dissolved into solvents like alkali and carbon
matic gummy material composed of guaiacyl, syringyl disulphide to reconstruct cellulose-rich bres (Ryd-
and p-hydroxyphenyl functional groups as well as p- holm, 1965), through which the functional chemical
coumaric acid that is esteried in the polymer systems compound like lignin is lost. Therefore, there is a
(Higuchi, 1969). The lignin in softwood-like bamboo strong need for the development of new bre produc-
is composed of coniferyl alcohol as the principal tion methods that enables the retention of lignin in the
monomer (Dimmel, 2010). Lignin is a complicated nal bre products.
network of polymers made of oxidative coupling of
three major C6C3 (phenylpropanoid) units with many
carbon-to-carbon and ether linkages and is formed by Conclusion
dehydrogenative polymerisation of three lignin precur- In this study, the origin of antibacterial property of
sors, p-hydroxycinnamyl, coniferyl and sinapyl alco- Australian-grown bamboo was investigated. The bam-
hols (Xu, Sun, Sun, Fowler, & Baird, 2006; Zhanga, boo extract in the typical plant solvent DMSO to
Liua, & Suna, 2010). FT-IR spectroscopy in this study extract hemicellulose showed the inhibition of bacterial
revealed the presence of aromatic and carbonyl func- growth but could not kill the bacteria. The MWL
tional chemical groups in bamboo. Some edible plant which was extracted in aqueous dioxane showed 100%
extracts have shown antibacterial activity because of antibacterial activity even after extensive dilution.
the presence of phenolic groups (Alzoreky & Nakaha- Therefore, it is concluded that the antibacterial com-
ra, 2003). Other studies reported the separation of pound of bamboo is located in lignin. FT-IR results
bioactive lignophenol antioxidants from bamboo lignin suggested that the antibacterial property may stem from
The Journal of The Textile Institute 849
the aromatic and phenolic functional groups in lignin. Johari, R., Kumar, G., Kumar, D., & Singh, S. (2009).
Further antibacterial studies against a Gram-positive Synthesis and antibacterial activity of M(II) schiff base
complex. Journal of Indian Council of Chemistry, 26(1),
bacterium Staphylococcus aureus are under way. 2327.
Koshijima, T., & Watanabe, T. (2003). Association between lig-
nin and carbohydrates in wood and other plant tissues.
Acknowledgements Verlag/Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer.
Researchers would like to thank Dr Xin Liu and Dr Tiffany Liese, W. (1998). The anatomy of bamboo culms. Beijing:
Gunning at Deakin University for their help and support. International Network for Bamboo and Rattan
(INBAR).
Liese, W. (2009). Bamboo as carbon-sink-fact or ction? In
References S. Lucas & W. Liese (Eds.), 8th world bamboo congress
Afrin, T., Tsuzuki, T., & Wang, X. (2009). Bamboo bres and (Vol. 3, pp. 7177). Boston, MA: World Bamboo Organi-
their unique properties. In C.M. Wilson & R.M. Laing zation.
(Eds.), Combined (NZ and Aus) Conference of the Textile Lu, B., Wu, X., Tie, X., Zhang, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2005). Toxicol-
Institute (pp. 7782). Dunedin, NZ. ogy and safety of anti-oxidant of bamboo leaves. Part 1:
Afrin, T., Tsuzuki, T., & Wang, X. (2010). Bamboo: A distinc- Acute and subchronic toxicity studies on anti-oxidant of
tive green bre. In ASMT Amin (Ed.), ICTA 2010: Recent bamboo leaves. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 43,
Developments and Challenges of Textile and Apparel 78392.
Industry: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference Pandey, K.K., & Pitman, A.J. (2003). FTIR studies of the
Downloaded by [Deakin University Library] at 23:44 04 May 2014
on Textile and Apparel (pp. 1419). Dhaka, Bangladesh. changes in wood chemistry following decay by brown-rot
Akao, Y., Seki, N., Nakagawa, Y., Yi, H., Matsumoto, K., Ito, and white-rot fungi. International Biodeterioration & Bio-
Y., Ito, K., Funaoka, M., Maruyama, W., Naoia, M., & degradation, 52, 151160.
Nozawaa, Y. (2004). A highly bioactive lignophenol Rao, K.M.M., & Rao, K.M. (2005). Extraction and tensile
derivative from bamboo lignin exhibits a potent activity to properties of natural bers: Vakka, date and bamboo. Com-
suppress apoptosis induced by oxidative stress in human posite Structures, 77, 288295.
neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Bioorganic & Medicinal Rodrguez-Lucena, P., Lucena, J.J., & Hernndez-Apaolaza, L.
Chemistry, 12, 47914801. (2009). Relationship between the structure of Fe-Lignosulfo-
Al-Bakri, A.G., & A, F.U. (2007). Evaluation of antimicro- nate complexes determined by FTIR spectroscopy and their
bial activity of selected plant extracts by rapid XTT reduction by the leaf Fe reductase. In: The Proceedings of
colorimetry and bacterial enumeration. Journal of Microbi- the International Plant Nutrition Colloquium XVI. UC
ological Methods, 68, 1925. Davis.
Alzoreky, N.S., & Nakahara, K. (2003). Antibacterial activity Rydholm, S.A. (1965). Pulping processes. New York, NY:
of extracts from some edible plants commonly consumed Interscience, Wiley.
in Asia. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 80, Sakakibara, A., & Sano, Y. (2001). Wood and cellulosic
223230. chemistry (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Marcel Dekker.
Ansel, H.C., Norred, W.P., & Roth, I.L. (1969). Antibacterial Shan, B., Cai, Y., Brooks, J.D., & Corke, H. (2008). Antibacterial
activity of dimethyl sulfoxide against Escherichia coli, properties of Polygonum cuspidatum roots and their
Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus megaterium. major bioactive constituents. Food Chemistry, 109, 530
Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 58(7), 836839. 537.
Austin, R., Levy, D., & Ueda, K. (1970). Bamboo. New York Sulaiman, O., Murphy, R.J., Hashim, R., & Gritsch, C.S.
& Tokyo: John Weatherhill Inc. (2005). The inhibition of microbial growth by bamboo vin-
Bjrkman, A. (1954). Isolation of lignin from nely divided egar. Journal of Bamboo and Rattan, 4(1), 7180.
wood with neutral solvents. Nature, 174(4440), 1057 Walker, J.C.F. (2006). Primary wood processing (2nd ed.).
1058. Netherlands: Springer.
Buta, J.G., Zadrazil, F., & Galletti, G.C. (1989). FT-IR determi- Xu, F., Sun, J.-X., Sun, R., Fowler, P., & Baird, M.S. (2006).
nation of lignin degradation in wheat straw by white rot Comparative study of organosolv lignins from wheat straw.
fungus Stropharia rugosoannulata with different oxygen Industrial Crops and Products, 23, 18093.
concentrations. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemis- Yang, F.-C., Wu, K.-H., Huang, J.-W., Horng, D.-N., Liang,
try, 37, 13821384. C-F., & Hu, M.-K. (in press). Preparation and characteriza-
David, N.A. (1972). The pharmacology of dimethyl sulfoxide. tion of functional fabrics from bamboo charcoal/silver and
Annual Review of Pharmacology, 12, 353374. titanium dioxide/silver composite powders and evaluation
Dimmel, D. (2010). Lignin and lignans: Advances in chemistry. of their antibacterial efcacy. Materials Science and Engi-
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. neering C.
Haimer, E., Wendland, M., Potthast, A., Henniges, U., Rose- Yueping, W., Ge, W., Haitao, C., Genlin, T., Zheng, L., Feng,
nau, T., & Liebner, F. (2010). Controlled precipitation and X.Q., Xiangqi, Z., Xiaojun, H., & Xushan, G. (2010).
purication of hemicellulose from DMSO and DMSO/ Structures of bamboo ber for textiles. Textile Research
water mixtures by carbon dioxide as anti-solvent. The Jour- Journal, 80(4), 334343.
nal of Supercritical Fluids, 53(13), 121130. Zemek, J., Kosikova, B., Augustin, J., & Joniak, D. (1979).
Higuchi, T. (1969). Bamboo lignin and its biosynthesis. Wood Antibiotic properties of lignin components. Folia Microbi-
Research, 48, 114. ology, 24, 483486.
Ito, Y., Akao, Y., Shimazawa, M., Seki, N., Nozawa, Y., & Zhanga, A.-P., Liua, C.-F., & Suna, R.-C. (2010). Fractional
Hara, H. (2007). Lig-8, a highly bioactive lignophenol isolation and characterization of lignin and hemicelluloses
derivative from bamboo lignin, exhibits multifaceted neuro- from Triploid of Populus tomentosa carr. Industrial Crops
protective activity. CNS Drug Reviews, 13(3), 296307. and Products, 31, 357362.